How are electoral reforms encouraged or hindered? A scoping review

ABSTRACT

Introduction:

My study focuses on the precursory conditions for electoral system reforms devised to alter the rules for filling Legislative seats. My goal is to address the following questions: i) What conditions must be satisfied for an electoral reform to be implemented? ii) What impediments might stand in the way of electoral reforms?

Materials and methods:

A scoping review was employed to chart the international state of knowledge. I analyzed 20 articles selected from a structured search on the Web of Science and Scopus platforms, the SciELO library, and Google Scholar. I classified the literature based on the variables that look into the causes and barriers to reforms, both in young democracies and consolidated democracies.

Findings:

The success of an electoral reform hinges on overcoming different obstacles, contingent upon the magnitude of the proposals. If the reform is far-reaching there is a propensity for the emergence of cultural and political obstacles that are hard to surmount, such as traditionally rooted electoral systems (the United Kingdom and the United States are cases in point). This explains why many countries have largely unaltered electoral systems. Conversely, mini-reforms and technical reforms, such as alterations to the party-list system or the formula for apportioning seats, have much smaller obstacles, which would explain the increased incidence of such changes in electoral laws.

Discussion:

There is no universal basis to explain what encourages or hinders electoral reforms, as the contexts in which each reform exists dictate the various factors that come into play. However, institutional barriers are eased during periods of political crises, presenting a window of opportunity to implement changes in electoral law.

Keywords:
electoral reform; political reform; electoral system; political institutions; scoping review